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A presidential mint julep cup?

By DONOVAN SLACK

09/19/2012 07:04 PM EDT

An Iowa couple had been planning their wedding for six months, "down to the last cupcake," but found out a week before their nuptials this month that President Barack Obama had decided to do a rally at their chosen venue, according to WOI-TV Des Moines.

That meant they couldn't get into the parking lot at Living History Farms the morning of their wedding Sept. 1, leaving the bride and her friends to haul her dress quite a distance. And then there were worries the rally could nix the wedding altogether if it ran too late.

"Just our luck, type of thing," the groom, Jon Gibbs, told WOI. "That's kind of how we were both like, oh yeah, figures the one place we choose, the president also chooses."

But the rally finished on time, the ceremony went ahead as planned, and the president left behind a handwritten note of congratulations and some gifts: a silver platter and mint julep cup, both with the presidential seal.

"I mean what do you do with it? You have to make a mint julep, so...I used it the first night," Jon Gibbs said, WOI reported.

Neither he nor his new wife are registered Democrats but they appreciated the mementos. He did tell the Des Moines reporter that he wants a different gift next time: a lifelong-tax exemption.